What's your stance?

Dukes_Lounge

Dukes_Lounge

The rookie
Hey guys, just had a bummer of a week,
Been dreadfully sick and I've only managed to play about 5 racks in the past week...
Anyways, because of that, I've experienced another slump in my game, and now I'm not feeling comfortable in my stance anymore. I'm feeling all 'crossed up' and my shots have been so, as well.

I'm a lefty, and my stance and approach are as follows:
Approach line of aim from a couple of feet away from the table.
Left leg steps on that line of aim, arm is pointed down at 90 degrees,
Right leg steps in front and out by about 45 degrees.
Back leg tends to stay straight while front leg holds the rest.

Now this is where my problem begins,
I can't find a good balance point to rest on (I keep shifting my weight)
My shoulder naturally wants to compensate as if my hips are in the way (which it's not... )

Is there something I'm not taking into account with my stance?
and, how do you stand?

I'm about 6 feet tall, maybe just 2 inches shy. .... But I feel like I'm not using my size properly too.

Thanks
 
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Did you feel comfortable before? If you did don't worry about it. After 1 week off your game isn't going to disappear.

What I do would feel completely alien to you I'd imagine, but ill explain what I do anyways :)

I'm right handed so my right leg is on the shot line, with my foot angled out at around 20 degrees or so and its locket at the knee.
Left leg moves out 90 degrees from the shot line again with my foot pointing out 20 degreesish. The line from left foot to right foot is 90 degrees to the shot line.
Next I bend straight forward at the hips and rotate my shoulders and torso so my chest points to the right slightly, the right shoulder moves up slightly and the left shoulder drops slightly.
Bridge is placed and I have 4 points of contact with the cue; right hand, left hand, chest and chin. The elbow is higher than my head, weight is balanced evenly with left and right foot, with a slight forward imbalance onto my bridge hand. The result of this is it gets my bridge, eye line, right shoulder, triceps, elbow, grip hand and right leg all along the shot line.

Stance won't make you cue straight, but it can hinder and completely ruin a stroke.
 
Pidge said:
Did you feel comfortable before? If you did don't worry about it. After 1 week off your game isn't going to disappear.

anyways :)



Stance won't make you cue straight, but it can hinder and completely ruin a stroke.
Click to expand...


Thanks mate :)
I never really felt 100% ... Until now that I've really did some reading on it.
So it turns out I've been getting lazy on my stance and I was standing too far squared with the table, thus my hips (left) was getting in the way of my stroke arm.... and what was supposed to be a nice straight stroke, became all crossed up...
 
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I'm similar to Pidge but my right knee has some flex in it & my cue does not touch my chin or chest but my eyes area very low.

I was having a bit of a problem awhile back shooting when the cue ball is well in the corner pocket. Having to cue so short & a bit jacked up was 'jamming' me up. So just for these shot I turn my stance a bit clockwise. I'm right handed. This worked fine as it gave me just enough room that I needed to free up my stroke.

Good Luck, Shoot well & Best Wishes,
Rick
 
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Dukes_Lounge said:
Hey guys, just had a bummer of a week,
Been dreadfully sick and I've only managed to play about 5 racks in the past week...
Anyways, because of that, I've experienced another slump in my game, and now I'm not feeling comfortable in my stance anymore. I'm feeling all 'crossed up' and my shots have been so, as well.

I'm a lefty, and my stance and approach are as follows:
Approach line of aim from a couple of feet away from the table.
Left leg steps on that line of aim, arm is pointed down at 90 degrees,
Right leg steps in front and out by about 45 degrees.
Back leg tends to stay straight while front leg holds the rest.

Now this is where my problem begins,
I can't find a good balance point to rest on (I keep shifting my weight)
My shoulder naturally wants to compensate as if my hips are in the way (which it's not... )

Is there something I'm not taking into account with my stance?
and, how do you stand?

I'm about 6 feet tall, maybe just 2 inches shy. .... But I feel like I'm not using my size properly too.

Thanks
Click to expand...

My stance is one that is comfortable that also allows me to align the cue to the shot line, align my vision center and deliver the cue precisely to the cueball in the spot I want it to hit.

Perhaps you're overthinking this?
 
I re-read your description & it sounds like you may be stepping too far forward & with the front knee flexed & the rear knee straight where too much weight might be on the front foot.

I'd try going TOO far in both directions & see what feels more comfortable even if they are both uncomfortable if that makes any sense. By too far in both direction I mean more square like Pidge & by turning more counter clockwise for you to where your front foot is closer to the line.

Once you feel which one is more comfortable, or less uncomfortable just shad back toward neutral til it fits.

It's almost impossible without a pic or vid, but that's my take.

Good Luck,
Rick
 
I almost said "Wait a minute, what you're describing is totally backwards, no wonder you feel uncomfortable."
Then I searched and realized what I consider 'normal' or 'textbook' is actually different from what most recommend.
Guess my stance is weird.

But to me, it's totally natural, and doing anything else feels illogical, like you're twisting your legs
and fighting what your body wants to do.
So, maybe you'll have better luck shooting the way I do.

8tigu7a.png


Imagine you just walked up to someone and stopped to face them.
Where are your feet naturally pointing?
Unless you consciously twist them, they probably point outward a little (first pic).
Your toes are not pointing straight ahead.

Now start to turn into your stance. As a lefty you're rotating your body counterclockwise.
If facing straight ahead is 90 degrees, and facing fully to the left is 0 degrees...
I'd say most pool players probably rotate about halfway, like 45 degrees.
(second pic, which is just the first pic rotated 45 degrees).

Look at the left foot now. It's pointing almost directly to the left.

Here's where our stances are quite different.
To complete my stance, I step my right foot forward into the line of the shot.
I guess you & a lot of other people are trying to make their left foot go on the shot line.
But IMO that's really unnatural... your foot is pointing almost straight to the left.
To get it to point straight ahead you must twist your left leg quite a bit, like 70 degrees.
That doesn't sound very natural and comfortable to me.

So, what I do is let my back foot just stay where it wants to stay (third pic).
I don't turn it at all. Instead, I turn my front foot very slightly to point along the line of the shot.
It's already pointing almost straight ahead so I only need to twist my right leg a tiny bit to do this.

To me, this is very natural and comfortable. Maybe it will be for you as well.

With that being said, CJ Wiley made an interesting comment that sometimes it's
not always about comfort. He has a lot to say about stance.
I'm no stance expert, I can't even find matching socks, so I'd recommend sending him a message too.
 
CreeDo said:
I almost said "Wait a minute, what you're describing is totally backwards, no wonder you feel uncomfortable."
Then I searched and realized what I consider 'normal' or 'textbook' is actually different from what most recommend.
Guess my stance is weird.

But to me, it's totally natural, and doing anything else feels illogical, like you're twisting your legs
and fighting what your body wants to do.
So, maybe you'll have better luck shooting the way I do.

8tigu7a.png


Imagine you just walked up to someone and stopped to face them.
Where are your feet naturally pointing?
Unless you consciously twist them, they probably point outward a little (first pic).
Your toes are not pointing straight ahead.

Now start to turn into your stance. As a lefty you're rotating your body counterclockwise.
If facing straight ahead is 90 degrees, and facing fully to the left is 0 degrees...
I'd say most pool players probably rotate about halfway, like 45 degrees.
(second pic, which is just the first pic rotated 45 degrees).

Look at the left foot now. It's pointing almost directly to the left.

Here's where our stances are quite different.
To complete my stance, I step my right foot forward into the line of the shot.
I guess you & a lot of other people are trying to make their left foot go on the shot line.
But IMO that's really unnatural... your foot is pointing almost straight to the left.
To get it to point straight ahead you must twist your left leg quite a bit, like 70 degrees.
That doesn't sound very natural and comfortable to me.

So, what I do is let my back foot just stay where it wants to stay (third pic).
I don't turn it at all. Instead, I turn my front foot very slightly to point along the line of the shot.
It's already pointing almost straight ahead so I only need to twist my right leg a tiny bit to do this.

To me, this is very natural and comfortable. Maybe it will be for you as well.

With that being said, CJ Wiley made an interesting comment that sometimes it's
not always about comfort. He has a lot to say about stance.
I'm no stance expert, I can't even find matching socks, so I'd recommend sending him a message too.
Click to expand...
Odd socks?
 
Keep the knees bent

To the OP, I'm left handed and 6'2" as well.

I was going to post how I stand, but the above description by CreeDo summed it up really well in a manner almost exactly like mine. His is a good illustration of how to orient your feet and how to get down into your stance.

If you like to get low on the cue to shoot like I do, one thing I would advise against is locking your back leg. I find doing this always leads to early fatigue in the lower back, which quickly leads to not getting down fully on shots. That causes me to start raising the butt of the cue and begin to shoot down onto the cueball, resulting in unwanted spin and inaccuracies.

Locking the back leg works better for folks with shorter levers, as well as snooker players, who have the advantage of playing on a table surface with a higher elevation than pool tables.

If you are going to shoot low, you need to get used to bending your legs at both knees and keep your weight evenly distributed on both feet, relatively speaking. I find doing this keeps my back stress free, and provides a stable and sturdy balance to execute most shots. It would behoove you to observe the stances of pros that are similar in height to us (Shane, Earl, Archer, etc...). They all do this.
 
try snooker stance, I am sure your game will improve. but its pretty hard to learn- took me at least 2 weeks practicing every day, it is really uncomfortable and akward at first
 
mel_smOg said:
try snooker stance, I am sure your game will improve. but its pretty hard to learn- took me at least 2 weeks practicing every day, it is really uncomfortable and akward at first
Click to expand...
Its worth mentioning there are various snooker stances that are commonly taught.

The modern stance - basically my stance which requires you to step out to the side square to the shot line. The hips rotate clockwise slightly when getting down, and people have said of over stretching and pain in the left hip. If it does hurt, don't do it.

The taditional stance - similar to the modern stance but you step forward and out with the left leg for right handers. The hips turn far more and is more closely related to your average pool players stance. This stance causes discomfort for me because I can't get my left eye over the cue without a lot of twisting at the waist.

Basically the stance is purely for stability. It should be comfortable and sturdy enough to withstand a shove. More importantly is getting into a position where the shot becomes clearer, so you can get your cue onto the shot line.

I'd start by reading Dr Daves vision center instructional article. Once you find your vision center you can keep your head where it is and just get into a stable and comfy position to strike the shot.
 
I'm a right handed player and here is what I do:

1. Line up the shot and imagine the line continuing onto the floor where I stand.
2. I place the ball of my right foot on that line.
3. I open up my stance with my left foot being at about a 45 degree angle from the line.

By doing this I put myself in a consistent and comfortable stance and try to address the cue ball the same way every time.

EDIT: Max Eberle has a great tutorial about this in his "Powerful Pool" DVD series.
 
forward agressive, attack

i noticed your thread last week, back of my mind ever since.
last nite visited local area room and thought about this question.
finally figured out my posture is forward and on the attack, aggresive.
it's like i'm sending the cueball into battle :)
 
I would have to definitely say the stance is one of the weakest parts of my game lol. I hate it...have tinkered a bit with changing it but nothing seems solid while allowing me to do my whole normal shooting process from start to finish hence I stick with the crummy stance I have. I have some pretty bad back/neck problems so in a sense I am sort of limited on what feels "ok"....I may just need to spend 8 hours, put on socks that don't match like above and go to town to figure it out!
 
Spimp13 said:
I would have to definitely say the stance is one of the weakest parts of my game lol. I hate it...have tinkered a bit with changing it but nothing seems solid while allowing me to do my whole normal shooting process from start to finish hence I stick with the crummy stance I have. I have some pretty bad back/neck problems so in a sense I am sort of limited on what feels "ok"....I may just need to spend 8 hours, put on socks that don't match like above and go to town to figure it out!
Click to expand...
Lol you noticed that too?

I feel a new thread coming! With people throwing money into paypal accounts to seed players into tournaments just for fun, surely we can raise $5 to help CreeDo buy some new socks!
 
Pidge said:
Lol you noticed that too?

I feel a new thread coming! With people throwing money into paypal accounts to seed players into tournaments just for fun, surely we can raise $5 to help CreeDo buy some new socks!
Click to expand...

Not only are they mismatched, they aren't even that clean.
I'm wearing swimming trunks too, no lie. Casual Friday lasts all week at my work.

If you guys want to send me $5 I cannot promise I will spend it on socks.
But I can promise to keep my socks hidden in my shoes when I shoot,
so people don't freak out. The Socks for CreeDo Foundation is now taking donations.
 
Thanks for all the valuable information everyone!

Here's a picture of my stance (and a random photo of my new Kamui Black MH Snooker tip, just to fill in the extra box....)

So I stand about a shoulder width apart, then my right leg (as a lefty) steps forward about a good metre or so, then I bend down at the hips.

From reading your responses, I think I do keep my back leg too straight, and my weight tipped a bit too far forward, to the point where sometimes (and I just noticed this) I'm creeping up onto the ball of my rear foot, and causing my cue placement to not be levelled.
Then on top on my hips being in the way, it was all a recipe for disaster..

Lesson learnt: never get lazy about the fundamentals!

Btw, great socks, I have the same pair, but mine actually match :p
 
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